Maybe, Maybe Not
by EjoIsObsessed
Summary: All of the pretty girls make fun of her, calling her 'Lucy Caboosey'. She's shoved into lockers on a regular basis and everyone seems so cruel.  Except for that one boy in the wheel chair, he smiles at her when they meet in the hallway.


Lucy wasn't pretty like her sister, Frannie. Frannie was sixteen and blonde and thin and gorgeous. Lucy was ten and chubby and wore glasses. She played alone in the corner of the playground and spent her class time dreaming of the day when she would be sixteen.

Fran was a shoo-in for prom queen, and that was the title that Lucy hoped to have when she was in high school. But for now she was stuck in Elementary school with all the pretty girls jumping rope together and all the boys running around like maniacs. (Except for that one boy in the wheel chair, he seems just as lonely as Lucy.) Maybe when she's older, she'll be a pretty girl too. Just maybe.

* * *

><p>Lucy's twelve now and middle school is not fun. She's got braces and her hair has a mind of its own. She's overweight but she's trying to get rid of her baby fat. A healthy diet and exercise, how hard can it be?<p>

All of the pretty girls make fun of her, calling her 'Lucy Caboosey'. She's shoved into lockers on a regular basis and everyone seems so cruel. (Except for that one boy in the wheel chair, he smiles at her when they meet in the hallway.)

He's in her English class. Maybe she'll make friends with him. Just maybe. It would be nice to have someone to talk to.

* * *

><p>The boy in the wheel chair has a name. (Of course he does.) His name's Artie and he's a nice guy. They sit together at lunch time and they laugh at each other's jokes. Lucy thinks Artie's great. Artie is the only one in the whole school who doesn't treat her like dirt. She trusts Artie. She likes him a lot.<p>

"Hey Lucy," Artie starts one day at lunch. Lucy looks up at her friend waiting for him to continue. "Wanna come over this Saturday to watch a movie?" Lucy nods with a smile. She's twelve years old and this is the first time she's been invited over to a boy's house! She's really excited and she can't wait to tell Fran. Not that Fran will care.

* * *

><p>"Artie, I'm really sorry, but I can't come to your house on Saturday."<p>

She's on the phone and there are tears running down her cheeks. You can't hear it in her voice though.

When Lucy asked her mom to go to Artie's, her mother said that she had to work on Saturday, (Lucy hates that her mom works on weekends) that daddy would be going out of town and to ask Fran to take her. Frannie told her she had plans with her best friend, Ashley, on Saturday and couldn't drive her across town. Of course.

When Lucy had hung up the phone, she ran to her room, flopped down on her bed and cried. She wouldn't normally be so upset by something like this but she cares for Artie so much more than anyone she's ever met. He's the only one who's cared about her, too.

It's then that Lucy decided that she was going to make people care about her more.

* * *

><p>Lucy is thirteen now and she's given up food. Well, she gives up food for a few days and then she goes on a binge and eats everything in sight. A few hours later, she finds herself in the bathroom heaving her guts up. At least she's losing weight, right?<p>

But Lucy is miserable and Artie knows it.

"Eat something, Lucy." Artie frowns, pushing his new glasses up his nose and holding half of his sandwich out to her. Lucy turns her head away.

"I'm not hungry. And for the last time Artie, can you please call me Quinn?" She's on the verge of tears but she won't cry at school. All the cool kids will call her a baby. She knows she's being mean to Artie, it makes her feel bad, but she can't help it. Not eating makes her crabby.

Maybe one day she'll be skinny enough to eat anything she wants. Just maybe.

* * *

><p>Lucy feels the familiar cold feeling of a locker hitting her back and her books fall to the floor. "Miss Caboosey, you've dropped your books!" a boy mocks and Artie rolls up to Lucy's side.<p>

"Ignore them, Lu…Quinn. You're _way_ cooler than they'll ever be." He tells her, because he knows that's what his friend needs to hear right now. The truth is Artie thinks that Lucy is the coolest person he's ever met. She likes to dance along to the songs from Grease and she has hopes and dreams for the future. She pushes his wheel chair down the hallway for him and she helps him reach the high shelves in his locker. She's a great person, but she hasn't been herself lately. He loves Lucy, but- wait, love? Does he love his best friend? It's a strange concept to a thirteen year old boy but maybe he does love her...

"Thanks Artie." She sighs and gathers up her things from the floor. "I'll push your chair to English class."

Yeah, she's cool and maybe he loves her...just maybe. But it looks like she's having a hard time with middle school.

* * *

><p>"I'm leaving this school. I can't take it anymore." Lucy sobs. She didn't want to tell Artie like this. She wanted it to be short and simple, not emotional and the hardest thing she's ever done. She had gone to his house for a while and planned on telling him at exactly the right moment. She didn't expect to end up crying in his arms.<p>

It hits him like a kick in the stomach but he has to stay strong for Lucy. Lucy had changed even more over the past few months. She had dyed her hair blonde for starts, and she had lost lots of weight. She was still bigger than the other girls though. Her glasses look too big for her face and she's always in some kind of mood. Whenever he sees her though, he still remembers the old Lucy. The happy Lucy that laughed at all of his jokes and who talked about her new favorite singer every few weeks.

"I love you." he mumbles and it's just a thirteen-year-old confession that he had to make. Lucy looks up. Did Artie just say something to her? She hadn't heard over her sobs.

"What?" she asks, her watery eyes wide and red. Artie shakes his head.

"Nothing. I didn't say anything." Artie replies.

All she can think is '_I don't want to leave you, I love you, you're the greatest friend I've ever had, and_-' wait, this is new. She's never really used that word like that before. Her stomach flutters a bit as it hits her. She's leaving the boy she could maybe possibly be in love with and she's never felt so much pain in her life.

She's got to get rid of this. She'll stop calling Artie, stop e-mailing him, stop visiting him. It will hurt too much.

Maybe someday they'll really tell each other how much they care. Just maybe.

* * *

><p>Lucy isn't Lucy any more. She's Quinn, pretty Quinn Fabray who was the most popular girl in her middle school. She's gotten rid of the extra weight, lost the glasses, her braces came off over the summer and instead of not eating, she eats healthy food and exercises regularly. Now she's a freshman at McKinley high.<p>

She doesn't think of Artie much, but whenever she goes through some old pictures or glances at an old yearbook she still gets a soft fluttery feeling in her stomach and a dull pain in her chest where her heart is. But she's almost forgotten her past now.

She tries out for the Cheerios and to her surprise, makes the team. She befriends Santana and Brittany, two other girls that were at try outs. They seem cool, and now Quinn was on her way to becoming popular like Frannie. Maybe in a few years she would be prom queen, too. Just maybe.

* * *

><p>On her second day of high school, Quinn sees him, the boy who used to be her best friend. The boy she loved so, so much. Her stomach flutters a little. She completely stopped talking to him after she left her first middle school. She started a new life and had forgotten how much she had missed Artie at first. When she walks past him in the hallway, she looks in the other direction, not wanting to be seen looking at the loser boy in the wheel chair. But she wanted to talk to him. Boy, did she <em>ever<em> want to talk to him.

Artie doesn't recognize her. (She didn't think he would.) She was a pretty, popular cheerleader now, not some chubby little wannabe like she used to be.

She keeps going down the hallway, not looking back.

* * *

><p>About two months into her freshman year something weird happens. She walks into the cafeteria and buys a salad at the cafeteria (like she always does) but then she nearly walks into some kid in a wheel chair. Oh. It's Artie and oh god, what if he recognizes her? But he doesn't. There's that fluttery feeling in her stomach again. She mutters an apology and heads over to the table where Santana and Brittany are sitting.<p>

Artie is dumbstruck. It wasn't, it _couldn't_ be, is that Lucy?

He's probably just picturing things.

* * *

><p>The next time he sees Quinn, he's in an empty hallway after school. He would have normally rolled right past her, but instead he stops and smiles. "Lucy." He says in a quiet voice. Quinn stops dead in her tracks, shock upon her face. But the shock is soon replaced by a charming grin.<p>

"Hi Artie." She greets him. They're both all smiles and Quinn's heart starts to beat a little faster and what exactly is this feeling in her stomach? He remembers. They look at each other for a minute and then Quinn flicks her blonde ponytail gently and continues down the hallway. Frannie was picking her up to go for manicures together.

* * *

><p>Quinn dials Artie's old number. She can't believe she still remembers it. He still lives in the same house and Quinn smiles at that fact. She had moved into a bigger house across town when she changed schools.<p>

"Hi Artie, its Qu- Lucy." she smiles into the phone. "Can I come over?" she asks.

"…yeah, come on over." Artie replies.

Maybe this would be a good thing. Just maybe.

* * *

><p>They go into Artie's bedroom because Quinn says she wants to talk ("There's something I've been meaning to say for a long time." she had told him) and as soon as the door is closed behind him, Quinn leans down quickly and captures Arties lips into her own. Artie is shocked and he isn't quite sure what to do, so he gives in for a minute and kisses her back.<p>

Quinn's stomach is doing that thing again where it feels like a whole family of butterflies has been let loose inside, but she likes it. She likes how she feels when she thinks of having Artie back to comfort her and be there for her on those days when she still feels like Lucy Caboosey. She likes the thought of going back to the days when she didn't have a reputation to uphold.

Her lips are soft and inviting, but Artie can't do this. Not in this way. She at least needs to know what he felt for her, what he never stopped feeling for her. _How much he loves her_. He plants his hand on her shoulder and pushes softly until their lips part. Quinn lets out a soft whine of protest, but she understands.

"I'm sorry." She says when she catches a breath and realizes fully what just happened. "That was way out of line."

Artie considers this for a minute, but then just takes her hand. "You left. You didn't call me. I missed you." The last part was said in a quiet voice and he almost sounded thirteen again.

"I missed you too Artie. But look at me now. I'm finally pretty, I'm a cheerleader, my sister likes me…" she trails off and looks at Artie. He still looks like he did before. Sincere brown eyes gazing at her through his glasses, a small sad smile on his lips...

"I always thought you were beautiful inside and out." He tells her looking up into her ocean eyes. "Since the first day I spoke to you. I've loved you since we were young. I still love you, and I don't care if you're Lucy Caboosey or Quinn Fabray, you'll always just be the Lucy that laughed at my jokes and pushed my chair to English class every day. The Lucy that was always cooler than every kid in that stupid middle school."

Quinn is awestruck. Artie's loved her all this time and he didn't tell her. Of course, she didn't tell him either. Before she can say anything more, Artie is pulling her back down towards him and their lips have locked again. This kiss is more affectionate and it means more, and Quinn pulls away when she's dizzy and needs air.

"I love you too." She breathes. "Since we were young."

They love each other and everything feels right. Quinn feels safe and she feels home and maybe someday they would dance together at prom. Maybe they would hold hands while they walked down the hallway. Maybe someday they would get married and have kids. Maybe someday they would buy a house and grow old together. Just maybe, because the possibilities are endless, but for now they're just two teenagers in love and everything is wonderful.

* * *

><p><em>Fin.<em>


End file.
